New Delhi: LG VK Saxena on Wednesday asked various departments to present separate action plans for the summer heat and flood management within a month and keep them ready for roll-out well in advance.
The directions, made when Saxena was reviewing the preparedness for the upcoming summer and monsoon season, were issued in the meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), which was chaired by the LG and was attended by chief minister Rekha Gupta, who is the vice-chairman of the body. The meeting was called to assess the hazard vulnerability and risk assessment of Delhi, earthquake preparedness, urban flooding and a plan for extreme heat events.
“Held much in advance of the forthcoming summer and subsequent monsoon seasons, the officials in the meeting deliberated upon preventive, curative and emergent measures concerning various aspects that included availability and distribution management of water, desilting of drains and sewer lines, drainage management, and installation of requisite equipment etc.,” the LG office said in a statement.
The DDMA deliberated upon the retrofitment of hospital buildings, identification of school buildings for immediate relief, and marking of fire stations; gas, water and power supply lines, and Metro.
“Most of the densely populated colonies in the capital are located along the Yamuna, north, northwest, and southwest parts of the city, which fall in highly quake-probable areas. These areas house most of the unauthorised colonies where structural safety of four-five-storeyed houses on extremely small plot sizes was flagged as a matter of grave concern,” the LG office said.
The officials also underlined that the DDMA was “extremely ill-equipped” in terms of infrastructure, manpower and technology.
“The LG has directed officials to make land or building available for the state disaster response force at the earliest and requested the CM to address the issues of logistics. The National Disaster Response Force agreed to provide necessary technological support in the renovation and restructuring of DDMA and setting up of the command and control centre,” the LG office said.
